Professor Stephen Doughty joins Penang Medical College (PMC) as its fourth president and CEO. He comes to us from the position of Vice-Provost (Teaching and Learning) at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a post he has held since 2010.

“It is a privilege and an honour to be able to take over the leadership of PMC at this exciting time in its history with 20 years of strong and steady growth which have built PMC a solid reputation within Malaysia and beyond. I am excited at the opportunity to drive PMC forwards in the next chapter of its development and I look forward to working with PMC’s talented staff and students in that challenge.”

After a recent welcome lunch, Prof Stephen expressed his delight to be taking on the role of President and CEO at this exciting time, building on the excellent foundation laid by Prof Amir together with colleagues.

Professor Doughty takes over from Professor Amir Khir who has been with PMC since its early days.

Prof Stephen joined the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham in 2001 having previously worked at the University of Bradford, UK. He obtained a first-class degree in Chemistry from the University of Essex and a DPhil in Chemistry from Oxford University, UK. His research interests are focussed on molecular modelling and computer-aided drug design with a particular interest in modelling membrane-bound proteins for rational drug design.

In 2005, Prof Stephen moved to the University of Nottingham’s Malaysia Campus (UNMC) to establish their School of Pharmacy. He became the Dean of the Faculty of Health & Biological Sciences at UNMC, later renamed to the Faculty of Science, UNMC. He introduced the first ever UK accredited pharmacy programme delivered in part overseas and as founding Dean grew the Faculty of Science to a strong six schools. Since 2005 he has sat on the Management Board at UNMC and has chaired the Campus Teaching Committee since 2007. In 2008 Stephen was awarded a Lord Dearing Award for Teaching and Learning. Stephen has had extensive experience helping to guide the strategic direction of UNMC and specifically to drive new teaching and learning initiatives in order to keep pace with developments in learning technologies and student expectations. He has had extensive experience of institutional quality assurance both in the UK and Malaysia, being an institutional auditor for both the UK’s Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA).

Professor Hannah McGee, Chair of the Board of Penang Medical College and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, RCSI commented:

“On behalf of UCD and RCSI, we are delighted to welcome Professor Stephen Doughty as our new president & CEO to PMC. His expertise in the international higher education arena, in Malaysia and beyond, is very impressive and particularly opportune as we celebrate 20 years of success for PMC – and plan the stepping stones for success over the next 20 years. Professor Doughty will have the enthusiastic support of staff in PMC, alongside staff and senior administration in UCD and RCSI to support him in this new role”.

Penang Medical College is owned by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and University College Dublin (UCD). Students spend the first half of their medical training in Dublin and return to Penang to complete their medical training and receive a National University of Ireland medical degree. Together with postgraduate courses in Health Research and Public Health (International), PMC has almost 1,500 PMC medical graduates now working throughout Malaysia.

As PMC celebrates its 20th year anniversary this year, a series of events have been planned leading up to a final gala event to be held with UCD & RCSI here inPenang on the 4th of December 2016, Sunday. In commemorating achievements of the PMC community across the world, all alumni are requested to update their details for invitations via Facebook at /pmcpenang or the official PMC website.